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Searchers, Swimmers Practice to Rescue Astronauts

06.01.07

Target for searchers.NASA, the Air Force, Coast
Guard, Navy and Marine Corps took part in an expansive search-and-rescue
exercise May 31 to practice retrieving a space shuttle crew.
In the fictional scenario, a shuttle suffers a failure during
launch that eventually prompts the crew to bail out over the
Atlantic Ocean near NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Here, Coast
Guard crews help suit technician Mike Dang suit up for his role
in the practice. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder + View hi-res image

On his own.Suited up in a pressure suit and
survival gear similar to that worn by shuttle astronauts, Mike Dang is dropped off in the Atlantic Ocean to begin the search
exercise. Dang, two other crew equipment technicians and four real-life astronauts acted as astronauts
who had bailed out of the shuttle during an emergency. As they
floated in small rafts, a host of aircraft, ships and
helicopters hunted for them in the open ocean. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder+ View hi-res image

The search begins.A Coast Guard HU-25 Falcon jet sweeps over the waves May 31 during the first phases of the search and rescue exercise. Working a pattern several miles offshore of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the aircraft's crew employed several search techniques, including some that let distress beacons from astronauts' pressure suits to guide them. An Air Force Reserve HC-130 from the 39th Rescue Squadron also took part in the aerial portion of the search. Photo Credit: NASA/Troy Cryder+ View hi-res image

'Astronaut' rescued.An HH-60 helicopter of the 920th Rescue Wing retrieves one of the astronaut participants from the Atlantic Ocean during a search exercise. During actual shuttle launches, the helicopters park at the Shuttle Landing Facility in case they have to rescue crew members. Four of the helicopters took part in the rescue exercise. They carried their normal launch-day crews of rescue swimmers trained to pull astronauts from the ocean, swamps or land. Photo Credit: NASA/Troy Cryder+ View hi-res image

Exercise complete, crews return. The small craft that dispatched Mike Dang to be rescued returns to its mother ship at the end of a search-and-rescue exercise. The seven people who acted as astronauts who had bailed out of a crippled space shuttle were found and retrieved as planned, according to Air Force officials who oversaw the training.
Photo Credit: NASA/Troy Cryder+ View hi-res image